Alexandria’s waterfront master plan, with its new hotel, retail, dining and office development, doesn’t work unless the area’s 140,000 residents and 3 million annual visitors perceive the area as the place to be.

To that end, Alexandria is on the hunt for a contractor to design an expanded network of public spaces, parks and piers that will ultimately total slightly more than 30 acres, a net gain of 5 acres. The deadline for responses to the request for proposals, issued in August, closes at 4 p.m. Sept. 18.

“I think it would be ideal to do the development and public spaces together,” said Faroll Hamer, director of Alexandria’s Department of Planning and Zoning. “But, that being said, there’s nothing to keep us from going forward with the public spaces and letting the development catch up later.”

The potential bidders represented at the Aug. 23 pre-bidders conference include many of the biggest names in landscape design and architecture.

Alexandria’s Waterfront Small Area Plan, adopted by the City Council in January, proposes 806,485 square feet of development, including 450 hotel rooms, 300 new housing units, a 300-foot pier and 50,000 square feet of new retail, dining and entertainment.

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